Justin Bieber Admits He Had a ‘Dark’ Drug Abuse Problem

The "Sorry" singer, who graces March's Vogue issue with wife Hailey Baldwin, admitted there was a time in his life that he was abusing drugs. He said he was addicted to Xanax and used it to numb the shame he was feeling. "I found myself doing things that I was so ashamed of, being super-promiscuous and stuff, and I think I used Xanax because I was so ashamed,” he told the magazine during their first-ever interview together.

He explained that he used drugs as a coping mechanism. "Drugs put a screen between me and what I was doing. It got pretty dark,” he said. "I think there was a time when my security was coming in late at night to check my pulse and see if I was still breathing.”

These days, Bieber said that although he drinks alcohol in social settings, he hasn't used drugs since his detox at his former pastor Carl Lentz's home in 2014—and Baldwin is super proud of him for overcoming his addiction on his own. "I’m really proud of him. To do it without a program, and to stick with it without a sober coach or AA or classes—I think it’s extraordinary. He is, in ways, a walking miracle,” she said.